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Destination Overview > Travel Information > 10 Things to do in Perú > A Sojourn to Machu Picchu

10 Things to do in Perú

1. Machu Picchu, Cusco
   The ruins of Machu Picchu, rediscovered in 1911 by Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham, are one of the most beautiful yet mysterious ancient sites in the world. While the Incas used the Andean mountain top (9060 feet), erecting hundreds of stone structures from the early 1400's, legends indicate that Machu Picchu ('Old Peak' in the Quechua language) was revered as a sacred place from a far earlier time.
   
   The Incas turned the site into an extraordinary city of 5 square miles. Invisible from below, surrounded by agricultural terraces sufficient to feed the population and watered by natural springs, Machu Picchu seems to have been utilized by the Incas as a secret ceremonial city. Two thousand feet above the Urubamba river, the lofty ruins have palaces, baths, temples and some 150 houses, all in an extraodinary state of preservation. These structures, carved from the gray granite of the mountain top are wonders of both architectural and aesthetic genius. Many of the building blocks weigh 50 tons yet so precisely sculpted that they fitt together with mortarless joints.
   
   
2. Museo de Arte Colonial Pedro de Osma
   Av. Pedro de Osma 423, Barranco, Lima, Perú
   
   This museum maintains an extensive private collection of colonial art featuring paintings, sculptures, silverware and furniture from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.
   
   Located in the old and traditional district of Barranco and under the shade of ficus trees, it is risen the old residence of the Osma family, ordered to construct by Don Pedro de Osma y Pardo. There is conserved an elevation of the construction from 1906, signed by the Engineer Santiago Basurco.
   
   There are two buildings that compose the house, one at the front and another at the back side. This last one was the dining room. Both buildings are french styled and eclectic per moments. Vitrales art novean, ceilings of metal, wrought plaster and spiders of crystal is brilliant in his more than ten halls.
   
   
3. Gold Museum (Museo de Oro Perú)
   Av. Alonso de Molina 1100, Monterrico, Lima, Perú
   
   This private collection, assembled by Miguel Mujica Gallo, contains a wide assortment of pre-Columbian gold handicraft, weapons, ceremonial objects, jewelry and gold from both the Incas and pre-Inca civilizations.
   
   
4. El Parque del Amor
   Miraflores , Lima, Perú
   
   The Love Park is located on the cliffs of Chorrillos overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It's surrounded by walls of romantic quotes scripted in mosaic tiles and a monumental statue of two lovers embracing each other in the center of the park.
   
   
5. Bridge of Sighs (Puente de los Suspiros)
   One block from Parque Municipal, Lima, Perú
   
   Shaded with flowering trees, this secluded romantic walkway leads under a wooden bridge to a cliff with sweeping views of the ocean.
   
   
6. Shop in Union Street (Jiron de la Union)
   Linking the Plaza de Armas with Plaza San Martin, this five-block pedestrian mall features many fine jewelry stores, bookstores, movie theaters and large shopping galleries.
   
   
7. Foreign Office Building (Torre Tagle Palace)
   Ucayali 363, Lima, Perú
   
   Built in 1735 by the Marquis of Torre Tagle, this handsome building is considered to be the best surviving colonial house in Lima with its superb carved balconies, magnificent doors and a courtyard surrounded by rooms and ironwork.
   
   
8. Plaza de Armas (Plaza Mayor)
   Jr. Junin and Jr. Carabaya, Lima, Perú
   
   Once considered the heart of old Lima, this grand plaza features many important architectural monuments and buildings including a magnificent bronze fountain dating from 1650, the Archbishop's Palace with its elegant balconies and the Government Palace dating from 1924.
   
   
9. Lima Cathedral
   Plaza Mayor, Lima, Perú
   
   Located on the city's Main Square or Plaza Mayor, this cathedral was built in 1564 by architect Jeronimo de Aliaga and features an ivory baroque chapel of La Inmaculada and the tomb of Francisco Pizarro, known as the "conquistador of Perú."
   
   
10. San Pedro Church (Iglesia de San Pedro)
    Jirón Azángaro, cuadra 4, Lima, Perú
    
    Built by the Jesuits in 1638, this ornate church features baroque altars decorated in gold leaf, several colonial paintings and La Abuelita, the oldest bell in Perú.